How to catch Pokemon in Pokemon GO
By Buckie Wells
No judgment here, folks. We’re all playing the game and we’re all lacking tutorials.
There’s nothing wrong with asking for help. We’ve all been there. Yesterday, I let my grandmother take a crack at Pokemon GO in the backyard. After she spent five minutes talking about how she could see the Exeggcute on the phone in her backyard and marveling at the wonders of augmented reality, she started to press the Pokeball over and over. “I’m hitting it!” She kept saying.
It seems like that’s all there is to it — tap, tap, tap on the little floating Pokeball, right?
Not quite. Unfortunately, you can’t just hit it.
It’s about the flick of the wrist. Follow-through and whatnot.
Once you find a Pokemon, get close enough and tap it to initiate the catching sequence.
Depending on your dexterity, you either going to use your index finger or your thumb to swipe the Pokeball up at your target. Immediately when your finger starts the motion, you’ll notice a white ring around the Pokemon; consider this your crosshair.
Within the white ring, a smaller green ring will appear. As it shrinks, your chances of catching the Pokemon increases. Additionally, if the ring is yellow or red, the difficulty is higher and you might be looking at a Pokemon with higher CP (Combat Power) as well.
It’s simple.
But much like live animals, sometimes your Pokemon will move and you will have to reorient yourself and your phone camera. And sometimes, the balls just don’t flick the way you want them to. And borrowing from the traditional games, sometimes the Pokemon simply run away from you.
If you’re having some difficulty, you might also want to try turning off AR mode with the toggle at the top right of your screen. This will change the background of the game from what your phone camera is looking at to a plain field (or whatever scenery fits).
For additional XP, you can trace a circle around the Pokeball to add a spinning motion to it.
You’ll know if you’re successful when the Pokemon goes inside the Pokeball and a little animation follows with stars and whatnot. If it’s your first time catching the Pokemon, its information will be added to your Pokedex.
The best way to improve your skills is to practice. In the bottom-right of your screen, you’ll see the silhouettes of Pokemon that are nearby. If you tap the “proximity bar,” you’ll also see small footprints beneath each Pokemon. If there are three, the Pokemon is farther away. Also, you can try walking towards rustling grass (in the app) which appears as floating leaves nearby.
But remember, use caution while exploring and stay alert.